Re: WBZ Radio sports

[Mark Shneyder <mshbc@bu.edu>]

On Sun, 27 Jul 1997, Donna Halper wrote:

> Radio-- and it really sounds dumb.  Upton is left holding the fort on radio
> with whoever the guest or caller is while Bob gives a TV description of
> sports and ends with "Back to you, Kasey" as he hands off the TV news-woman.
> Whose bright idea was this?  It sounds awful, and it really breaks the
> rhythm of what is otherwise a fairly good radio sports/talk show... 
> 
> 

This is obviously done to crosspromote Ch.4 sports product on the radio
side and plug the Sports Final show which airs on 4 after 11 o'clock news
and is anchored by WBZ-TV's sports director(Lobel). There's such a huge 
glut of Sunday night sports shows(Fox25,Ch.7,ch.5, NECN,CNN, ESPN) one has
to wonder if there are just enough eyeballs to go around from 10:30 to
Midnight on a Sunday night. 

ch.4 just wants to spread the word about its programming and is using
their AM sister station in this effort. Nothing wrong with that.
Considering the fact that Mel got all their TV salespeople working on 100%
comission since July 1st, they need every rating point they can get. The
only problem that I've seen with this setup in the past is where Lobel
refers to the action(a save, a homerun,etc) on the tape and ignores
the fact that there are some tens of thousands of people who are only
listening(some in different states). Otherwise, it's not a bad summer
experiment to try to boost Ch.4's audience. Hey, maybe they'll have Lobel
delivering Big Dig traffic reports and sports updates from a chopper next
weekend...Couldnt hurt at this point.

As far as rhythm and timing, that should not be a problem if the cues
between TV and radio sides are all in places. From what you're describing,
sounds like radio producers were relying on the TV monitor to get
their cue ins/outs for Lobel's segment -- Lobel's cue to the anchorwoman
should never been heard on 1030, in the first place....

- -Mark

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